Cleaning out the Lafayette football notebook

Lafayette
football coach Frank Tavani said Sunday that while it may be the goal of every
one of his players to grade out at 100 percent every week, “a more realistic
grade is around 80.”

For
the first time this season, the average scores of the five interior offensive
linemen – the tight end is not included – graded out at 80 for the performance
in Saturday’s 31-7 league victory over overmatched Bucknell.

I’m
sure the two rushing touchdowns helped that score; so did the 193 yards
rushing. The two sacks allowed probably pulled down the score. One holding
penalty against the Leopards was declined, but the o-line was hit with two
false-start penalties.

“For
a team that’s not supposed to be able to run the football, and against a very
tough defense, it’s a credit to our staff that we could get ourselves into some
things formationally that would get
(Bucknell defensive players) into positions where we wanted them,” Coach Tavani
said.

As
for quarterback Andrew Dzurik, in his first start, Tavani said that while the
sophomore graded out “in the lower 70s, I was pleased with his performance. It’s
not easy being out there with only as little over a half a game of reps under
your belt.” He thought Dzurik threw well from the pocket, did a good job
several times of throwing balls away. “He had the lower score based on some of
his decisions and some things he didn’t see.” He also threw three interceptions,
two of which were tipped by BU defensive back Louis Taglianetti before being
picked off.

With
the status of Zach Zweizig still very much up in the air, Dzurik will get ready
for the game this week at Princeton, with the two freshmen continuing to take
snaps in practice. One of the frosh, Drew Reed, got into the game for one play
when Dzurik came out after being dazed. Reed never had a chance to show
anything; he was sacked by linebacker Matt Johnson, who had two of the Bison’s
three sacks in the game.

A BONUS FOR THE COACH
– As
though getting the first win wasn’t enough to make Coach Tavani happy over the
weekend, he also got to see his first male grandson – Jackson Anthony Tavani –
for the first time. Coach T’s son Daniel and his wife brought the baby from
their Beaufort, Ga., home to Easton for a special christening ceremony. The
baby was born in June. “Gonna be a heckuva running back,” Coach Tavani said of
his grandson. Tavani and his wife Agnes now have two grandchildren – Natalie Elena
Morici is the first child of Coach T’s daughter Meghan and her husband, Frank. She
is a year and a half old, and Meghan will have a second child soon. Nice for
Grampy – not Grumpy, although the coach says that sometimes fits, too.

WHO’S NO. 2 AT
TAILBACK? – Ross
Scheuerman is being asked to carry a big load these days because the coaching
staff knows every time he touches the ball something big could happen. Finding
a complement to him has not been easy. On Saturday, Marcellus Irving got seven
carries but only two net yards because he was thrown for an eight-yard loss on
his first carry. “Depending on the situation, we like Marcellus,” Tavani said. “He
runs hard and physical. On a couple of runs late in the game, he got hit by
unblocked people coming off the edge because Bucknell knew we were going to be
running the ball.” Greg Kessel, who has been hampered by injury, had just two fourth-quarter
carries for a net two yards. Deuce Gruden has yet to get a carry this year, and
freshmen Kyle Mayfield and Adin Greenfield haven’t played on offense. “Scheuerman
is just such a weapon,” Tavani said, “and we made a decision to get the ball more
to him in space and I think we accomplished that pretty well.” Scheuerman’s
78-yard TD run was a beauty. He also turned an almost-certain loss into an
18-yard first quarter gain when he reversed his field and ran to the BU 24. Two
plays later, he took a direct snap for a “wildcat” play that turned into a
17-yard gain to the 1.

THE FRIENDS COME
THROUGH AGAIN -- Lafayette is really blessed to have a support
group called Friends of Lafayette Football. The group, which Tavani says is
made up of “generous alums who have a passion for something – and not just the
one or two people you might think, but it’s a pretty big grouop and growing,”
purchased an equipment truck that will be used to haul all kinds of stuff to
road games and do away with the need to rent trucks. The truck was in the end
zone on Saturday. FoLF also purchased a portable x-ray machine that is in the
trainer’s room and allows for immediate use in case of injury. It was used to
x-ray the broken hand of Leopard DB Randall Logan. An orthopedic surgeon was on
hand to read the x-ray, and without ever having to leave the stadium, Logan has
the fracture set and a light cast and a pad put on. He returned to the game in
the second half, but was held out most of the time because things were well in
hand. Bucknell linebacker Audrey Dieujuste suffered an injury on a kickoff and
was also x-rayed in the training room to enable doctors to determine if he
needed to go for surgery. Tavani said he believed that was the case. “Not many
places have x-ray facilities right on the spot,” Tavani said. “That’s a tribute
to Friends of Football, who made that happen. Kudos to them.”

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION –
That’s
the name Coach T gave to an aspect of the game the public never sees or knows
anything about – life in the locker room. We all know college students in
general, and it seems athletes in particular, have this thing for loud music.
Darius Glover told me last week that he chooses to leave the locker room to do
his pregame preparation in silence while running on the field at Fisher Stadium
because the music distracts him. Coach Tavani said that at the first two home
games this season, “I couldn’t hear myself think” in the locker room as players
got dressed. So, this week, he decided to turn off the music. “It was a quiet
locker room, no music on the sound system,” he said. “I told them motivation
had to come from inside. If they wanted music, they had to use a headset. You
could hear a pin drop in there. It was a different mentality, different
atmosphere. Everybody was on the same page.”

SPECIAL TEAMS HIT A
SNAG – Darrell
Crawford, who is going to make some big plays for the Leopards before his
career is over, dropped a punt, and the loose ball was recovered by Bucknell,
which used the second chance to score its only touchdown on Saturday. “”He got
a little nervous,” Tavani said of the speedy sophomore, “but he has a tough
mentality. It was a high ball and it spiraled and curved.” After that drop,
rthe Leopards turned to Justin Adams, who showed the best hands during
preseason camp. That doesn’t mean you won’t see more of Crawford, whose explosiveness
makes him an asset, “but we wanted the all caught and we didn’t worry about the
returns,” Tavani said. Special teams coordinator Doug McFadden also used Jared
Roberts for one return. The dropped punt, and a missed 28-yard field goal
attempt by Ryan Gralish were blips on the screen for the Lafayette special
teams, which have been pretty solid in all four games. Bucknell’s longest
kickoff return was 23 yards; and punter Ryan Forrester may not be the longest,
but he has great hang time with consistency. Five of his seven punts Saturday
resulted in fair catches by the Bison. One ball went out of bounds, and the
only return was an an eight-yarder. Gralish kicked one field goal and was
perfect on PATs.